The present invention relates to a liquid spraying method, a liquid spraying system, and a liquid spraying execute program.
A typical liquid spraying apparatus for spraying liquid to a target includes an ink jet printer for printing an image and the like by spraying ink droplets onto a sheet of paper. Such a printer is sometimes interrupted or colors are changed during printing due to ink shortage. To solve these problems, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 10-166622 discloses a printer that includes a central processing unit (CPU). The CPU judges, before printing, whether each color of ink has a sufficient amount to be used for printing. More specifically, the CPU detects the remaining amount of ink in each ink cartridge and estimates the ink usage of each color of ink, based on the data to be printed. The CPU then compares the detected remaining amount of each ink with the estimated ink usage. As a result of the comparison, all the printing is performed when the remaining amount of each color of ink is greater than or equal to the estimated ink usage. The CPU analyzes the data to be printed and calculates the number of operations of the recording head driven during printing. The CPU multiplies the number of operations of the recording head by the spraying amount of each color of ink. Accordingly, the estimated ink usage of each color of ink is obtained.
Since the number of operations of the recording head of each color of ink during printing is enormous, the calculation of the estimated ink usage applies a great load on the CPU. Therefore, it takes a long time to determine whether the ink amount is sufficient. Thus, it takes time from when the user commands the print execution to the printer until the printing is completed. Particularly, in accordance with the recent increase in the resolution of the image, the number of times the ink is sprayed is increased, which increases the load on the CPU.